2019 SUMMER LAKEVILLE

Top Gun Hockey Skills

Welcome to Top Gun Hockey Skills powered by MAP South Hockey

Top Gun Hockey Skills is back for another Summer of making hockey players BETTER!

All players develop at different rates and will have certain skills that they will struggle with during their development process. Top Gun Hockey Skills is going to work on bringing all areas of a player’s game up to speed. The on-ice instruction through which we will seek to improve these skills will be through high repetition drills that target individual skill development (skating, edge control, stick handling, puck protection, passing, shooting). Players will be executing hundreds, if not thousands of repetitions of these various skills this Summer with the end goal to give them the confidence and ability to take their game to the next level.

Even with the focus being on individual skill development, we will incorporate a battle and competition element to allow players to apply the skills they are learning in a game environment. This will give us the opportunity to work on the physical play as well and how to be effective both in offensive and defensive situations.

Our goal as a coaching staff is to give the players an environment that will promote success and development in each area of their game. This can only be achieved by having attentive instruction and holding the players accountable to be both mentally and physically engaged while they are on the ice. As coaches, we will ensure that the correct techniques are being executed and will not hesitate to stop players who are not performing them correctly. Some techniques they will be learning may be completely new to them, no matter what age. It is important that players come with a good ATTITUDE and EFFORT level each time they hit the ice. Player need to welcome critique and instruction to their game in order to move forward in their development. This is called being COACHABLE and is critical to a player’s success. Players that consistently exhibit these characteristics will receive the most out of each session.

Top Gun Hockey Skills powered by MAP South Hockey. This program is for players who are Peewees, Bantams and Midgets (completed second year Bantams) to participate in Summer 2019. The training will be 3 days a week: Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays featuring a 1 hour on ice session and 45-minute EVO workout. Peewees will be running on a shorter program from June – August, while our Bantam and Midget groups will go from April – August. Our Midget group will feature players who have at minimum completed 2 years of Bantams. Sunday ice times will be at St Thomas Ice Arena, while Tuesdays and Thursdays will be at historic West St Paul Ice Arena.

We are building off a very successful first year and have made some changes that we believe will lead to an even better development model for the 2019 program. Switching our schedule to span a longer time period and dropping the training from 5 to 3 days each week will keep players more focused, as well as provide them with a balanced and unique training session each day. Another benefit is allowing players to have more flexibility to play other sports in the Summer months which is very important to building a well-rounded athlete.

Each day will feature 3 on ice components: skating, puck skills, and competition/small area games. We will also cover checking and body contact/proper positioning throughout the program as it is important for players of all ages to be comfortable with the physical aspect of the game – both taking and receiving physical contact. The key to all of our training will be high repetition drills in order to build muscle memory and increase the speed and accuracy with which these skills are developed and performed.

There is limited availability with these programs so don’t hesitate to contact mike.carman@mapsouthhockey.com with any questions!